Health

New South African approach to protecting babies from AIDS

Chitra Pathak and Julie Clayton A new approach to protecting newborn babies against HIV infection in KwaZulu-Natal is causing widespread excitement abroad, and could soon enter clinical trials. It involves injecting babies with laboratory-made antibodies against the virus. Compared with the current practice of giving protective drugs to both a woman and her child, the new technique might enable women with the incurable Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) to continue breastfeeding without transmitting the virus to their babies.

Faster, better, quicker ways to fight hidden costs of CD4 counting in HIV/AIDS

While saving the taxpayer more than 4.5 billion rands, Dr Debbie Glencross has developed a cost effective method for monitoring CD4 count in HIV/AIDS patients. The technology has direct benefits for antiretroviral programmes across the world and in particular for those in remote areas.

Fighting diabetes with a quick cup of herbal tea

Three anonymous plants from the Eastern Cape in South Africa - call them Tom, Dick and Harry - are causing great excitement among scientists trying to find a low-cost, easy-to-use treatment for that secretive longterm killer, diabetes.

Genetically altered tobacco fights cervical cancer

Nozipho Mthembu Scientists at UCT are using genetically altered tobacco plants to create vaccines against cervical cancer. They aim to create vaccines that fight the virus not the wallet. Read how. Rows of bright green, leafy tobacco plants grow in a humid greenhouse. They look identical but one row is special. These are genetically altered tobacco plants, carrying the shell of the human papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer in women.

Deep vein thrombrosis and flying: check your genes not your class

Black Africans are at no risk of deep vein thrombosis, the so-called Economy Class Syndrome blamed for life-threatening blood clots in long-distance airplane passengers. According to Professor Barry Jacobson of South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, genetics is to blame rather than cramped conditions in jumbo jets. People of white and Indian descent may carry a genetic predisposition to this type of blood clotting. Black Africans are at absolutely no risk.

Deadly sleeping sickness set to be eliminated in 6 years	Aptamers – the right fit for sensors and therapy
Developing the male pill	A long road but potential malaria cure a boon for African science
Stem Cell Biotechnology – The Now and the Future	Cancer: not an African problem?
Microbicides - from results to reality	Emerging biosensor technology for rapid TB diagnosis
Have we got a pill for you	Microbicide hopes dashed again
A golden result for TB diagnosis	Barcoding" DNA to identify menacing mosquitoes
Human gene therapy, what doesn’t kill us will only make us stronger.	Clinical trial finds microbicide promising as HIV prevention method for women
Could SA plants hold the secret to a new cancer drug?	How HIV turns food-poisoning into lethal infection

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